Remains of 1,457 people who died in 2015 were honored during an annual interfaith ceremony at a common gravesite.

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The grave marker for 1,457 people who died in Los Angeles County in 2015, who had no identity or who’s bodies were never claimed. A service was held Wednesday at the L.A. County Crematory and Cemetery. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Remains of 1,457 people who died in 2015 in the county were honored during an annual interfaith ceremony at a common gravesite adjacent to Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights. A collection of 200 county employees, religious leaders, local residents and members of the press, attended the ceremony under overcast skies that followed a light morning rain.

“It is part of our commitment to never have a person buried in L.A. County without respect and dignity,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “Their lives mattered to someone and they still matter to us.”

Mourners at a memorial for 1457 people who passed away in Los Angeles County in 2015 who had no identity or who’s bodies were never claimed. A service was held Wednesday at the L.A. County Crematory and Cemetery. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Raquel Salinas Blesses the gravesite of 1457 people who passed away in Los Angeles County in 2015 who had no identity or who’s bodies were never claimed. A service was held Wednesday at the L.A. County Crematory and Cemetery. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

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Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn at the memorial for 1457 people who passed away in Los Angeles County in 2015 who had no identity or who’s bodies were never claimed. A service was held Wednesday at the L.A. County Crematory and Cemetery. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

The Los Angeles Symphony Chamber Singers sing Amazing Grace at a memorial for 1457 people who passed away in Los Angeles County in 2015 who had no identity or who’s bodies were never claimed. A service was held Wednesday at the L.A. County Crematory and Cemetery. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Mourners at a memorial for 1457 people who passed away in Los Angeles County in 2015 who had no identity or who’s bodies were never claimed. A service was held Wednesday at the L.A. County Crematory and Cemetery. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Mourners bow their heads during a memorial service for 1457 people who passed away in Los Angeles County in 2015 who had no identity or who’s bodies were never claimed. A service was held Wednesday at the L.A. County Crematory and Cemetery. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Chaplain Deacon Orlando Rubio blesses a mass grave for 1457 people who passed away in Los Angeles County in 2015 who had no identity. A service was held Wednesday at the L.A. County Crematory and Cemetery. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Mourners placed flowers at a memorial for 1457 people who passed away in Los Angeles County in 2015 who had no identity or who’s bodies were never claimed. A service was held Wednesday at the L.A. County Crematory and Cemetery. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

The grave marker for 1,457 people who died in Los Angeles County in 2015, who had no identity or who’s bodies were never claimed. A service was held Wednesday at the L.A. County Crematory and Cemetery. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

The mass gravesite at the L.A. County Cemetery and Crematory was marked with a plaque that read 2015 — the year the bodies were cremated. No names were listed. Their ashes were placed in the grave prior to Wednesday’s ceremony.

Families are given three years to collect remains before the ashes are interred. The county has buried the indigent dead since 1896. The earliest mass grave marker at the cemetery is dated 1961.

The reasons that the people have been unclaimed vary, officials said: Some may have had no next-of-kin. Some may have cut ties with their family. Others may be immigrants whose family members were unable to cross the border to bury their loved ones. And still others may have come from low-income families who couldn’t afford a burial. Some suffered from alcohol or drug abuse; Some were homeless.

“No one is forgotten and that would be true to many spiritual paths,” said the Rev. Fr. Chris Ponnet, the director of the Department of Spiritual Care at LAC+USC Medical Center. Ponnet has attended the ceremony for 20 years and presided over it for the past decade and a half.

Leaders of different faiths honored the dead according to their tradition. A Native American gave a Sage Blessing. A rabbi read Psalm 23 in Hebrew and English. The Lord’s Prayer was read in Korean, Fijian, Spanish and English. Scriptures from the Koran were read, as well as Hindu texts. There was a Buddhist chant. John O’Donohue’s poem “For Grief” was read. Incense was burned.

The number of people who each year mourn the dead has grown. At times there was only a chaplain and three crematory employees, Ponnet said. In the past few years between 100 and 200 people have attended.

Another change in recent years is that the large majority of the dead are no longer unnamed due to the county’s partnership with the website Ancestry.com, Ponnet said.

Heidi Jarman drove from Simi Valley to honor her friend David Holschuh who died alone in Las Vegas. Holschuh had been estranged from his family. His roommate found him dead in his apartment. His body was not among those who were interred Wednesday.

“It’s kind of a way to pay respect to him in a location that we are able because he was in Vegas,” Jarman said as her eyes filled with tears.

She brought a bouquet of flowers because she had heard that the graves need flowers.

Sam Atencio came to honor his uncle Joe Atencio, who helped raise him and recently died alone in Colorado. Sam Atencio drove to Colorado to collect the ashes. He spread them in Colorado and in Los Angeles.

“I have a feeling that everyone needs to be remembered, and a lot of these people were voiceless or infants. We just need to remember that they were here, however short a time or however long a time,” he said.

Abraham and Anne-Marie Kinney, of Burbank, have brought their 4-year-old daughter Simone to the burial every year since she was born. His goals was to show her at an early age to respect and treat other people with dignity.

Family members of the unclaimed dead who have been buried can purchase a small plaque and place it on the gravesite. Names of the unclaimed that have been cremated since 2012 can be found on the county Department of Health Services’ website.

Sarah Favot is an award-winning Los Angeles-based freelance writer. Most recently she was a data and investigative reporter at L.A. School Report, a non-profit education news website. Prior to that she was a staff writer for the L.A. Daily News covering county government. She is Vice President of the Los Angeles Chapter of The Society of Professional Journalists.